I really don’t like the dictionary definition of an engineer.  It narrows it down to belittle what being an engineer really is all about.

An engineer is such a broad description of someone.  At heart, everyone is an engineer.  You are engineering your life right now.  Every decision you make influences an outcome.  That’s really all an engineer does.  

An engineer makes a decision that either positively or negatively affects a result.  They use the knowledge they have been taught, but more importantly the experience they have gained, to increase the likelihood that their contribution will have a positive impact on what they are trying to accomplish. 

As a mom, I’m responsible for engineering my child’s opportunities for success in life.  Just like any engineering project, I don’t know what mistakes I’m going to make along that way that might negatively affect it.  However, just like on any engineering project, we make mistakes and then learn from them.  

Life is just a very large engineering project.  Everyone always wants the project to go perfectly without any field orders required because someone missed a detail or didn’t account for something or something broke or didn’t work as intended.  Life doesn’t always work out as intended but as parents we try to engineer our way past the obstacles put in front of us and learn something new every day that can be applied the next time.  

So, who are engineers?  We all are engineers in some respect.  What are engineers?  Engineers are people who take a problem, design a solution, then test, implement and optimize that solution.  Sometimes it works the first time.  Sometimes it takes multiple designs before there’s a success. 

Learn from your mistakes, move forward and engineer your future and a life you love!